Chapter 10

A/n: The last time we saw our hero, she was plummeting to the end of her short life. The villain was cackling manically and there was seemingly no hope! Will our hero survive, or will this cliffhanger leave her at the end of her rope? Time find out…

Jai squeezed her eyes shut. Air whistled past her ears as she fell. Think, Jai, she thought. Come on! What can I do? Her eyes shot open and she flung her arms out, hoping her instinct was right. If it wasn't, well… it wouldn't be good.

Time jolted to a stop and Jai found herself in a desert. She pumped her fist and yelled. "Yes! I knew he said it was an illusory world!"

Jai took a deep breath. "Okay, so now what do I do?" She peered skeptically around at the sand that hung frozen in the air. "How did I end up in Vaccuo?" She shook her head. "Nope. Not going to think about that right now."

Jai studied the three people before her. There was a red haired Faunas who looked to be about the age of Jai's parents. There was also a woman who looked in her early twenties with electric orange hair and a face of concentration. Then, Jai's eyes landed on the last person in the trio.

He had a dark coat that brushed his knees, short hair and a calm smile on his face. He looked the same age as the Faunas, and he had a thin sword strapped to his side.

Jai flinched, taking a step back. The dark coat… this is the guy Tara was talking about. She frowned, hugging herself. "So you killed Coli." She glanced over at the Faunas again. "I need some answers."
Jai took hold of the Faunas in the time stream and let him into her little alcove in it. The Faunas blinked a couple times before his gaze found Jai. "Olos girl," he said, raising an eyebrow. "I see you figured out how to stop Valkyrie's illusions." He glanced down at his hand, and Jai noticed a silver ring on it. "And I guess you stopped the control as well. Fascinating."

Jai crossed her arms. "Control?"

The Faunas held up his hand with the ring on it. "Control, yes. The DreamMaster has control over all of his minions through these rings."

"The DreamMaster?"

The Faunas sighed. "I'd better start from the beginning. How long can you keep your semblance up?"

"Eight hours when it's myself, but with my limited training on having others in the freeze with me, I'd say about an hour, then I would be completely out of Aura," Jai said, tapping her chin.

The Faunas nodded sharply. "Right." He took a deep breath. "My name is Nicholas Torres. My semblance allows me to see into different futures that might come to pass, along with the most prominent one. You can see why I was recruited. The DreamMaster needed me to put some fact behind the dreams he torments people with.

"He's been collecting people with strong, unusual semblances for a while now." He nodded over at Valkyrie. "Hers allows her to make any illusion she can think of come to life and become a tangible object."

Jai swallowed. "Okay, that's not good."

Nicholas smiled sadly. "It's beatable, young Olos." He stared off into the distance, debating with himself. He exhaled and nodded to himself. "You are strong, Jai. More than anyone else in Remnant, or at least, you will be. You will be the one to beat the DreamMaster, young one."

Jai froze, her mind going back to a promise that Coli made her make before Coli left on her last mission.

"Hey, Jai?" Coli asks, leaning back against the bench the sisters were sharing. "Can you promise me something?"

"Sure, Col," Jai says, shooting her sister a confused look. "What is it?"

"Promise me you'll be the greatest Huntress Remnant's ever seen."

"Jai, are you listening?" Jai's attention shot back to the present and she nodded.

"Sorry, I was thinking about something."

Nicholas smiled lightly. "Yes, I could tell. It's a lot to take in."

Jai glanced at her special watch that could tell time even in a timeless plane. She pressed her lips together, forming a plan. "Why haven't you taken off your ring? If that is what controls you, why can't you just fix that?"

Nicholas frowned. "We can't try to take it off without him noticing. It must be broken on our hand, or taken off my someone else without a ring."

Jai nodded again. "That's what I thought." She walked over to him and yanked his ring off. She tossed it to the ground and ground it beneath her foot. "I have a plan, and I need your help…"

Ivex paced back in forth, his eyes never leaving Jai. "What do you think?" He asked Max, trying to keep his anxiety out of his voice. Jai had just collapsed, and none of them knew what had happened to her.

Max sighed, leaning back on her heels. "This isn't something that's common for Jai. Biologically, she's very healthy. She's also mentally stable, so she wouldn't harm herself in any way…"

Tara watched with blank eyes, twisting a ring on her finger.

Ivex stood several paces away from Tara. He had felt the sensation of an attack when Jai had gone down. One of the two girls must have done something...but who? And what did they do? He brought a thumb to his mouth and bit down on it. What was going on?

Jai nodded at Nicholas. "You sure you can do this? I could figure something else out, but-"

Nicholas nodded, cutting her off. "Yes. He won't know the difference." Nicholas held up his hand, a different ring on it. "I'll make sure to get you some information soon." He took a deep breath. "If you see my wife, Angel, tell her that I'm still kicking."

Jai smiled, nodding. "Of course. Thank you for being willing to help."

"No," Nicholas said, "thank you. The beginning of the end has started for the DreamMaster, and I'm happy to aid in that as much as I can." He paused, then walked back over to where the other other two stood motionless. He gestured slightly to Valkyrie with his head. "Give her a nice sock in the nose before you head back. It will cause her to lose her concentration, and for a long distance illusion like this, she needs all her concentration to keep it up."

Jai curled her fingers into a fist. "This is for Coli." She reared her arm back and thrust her fist into Valkyrie's face. She unfroze time and found herself staring at a ceiling.

Jai sat up, gasping. "Holy crow. That was wack!" she then found herself being smothered in a hug.

"Jai!" Max exclaimed. "We were so worried! What happened to you?"

Ivex bent down and frowned at her. "You okay, Happy-go-lucky?"

Jai blinked a couple times to clear her head. "Yeah, I'm good."

Ivex leaned closer and in a voice that was barely audible, he whispered, "It was an attack. Don't know how."

Jai flinched at his words, then glanced over at Tara. Tara shot her a small smile. "It was nearly worse. If your teammate hadn't noticed you falling over, you would have hit that fireplace."

Jai nodded slowly, pushing herself up onto her feet. "Huh. Interesting."

Max hovered around her. "You...may want to stay sitting for a little while longer."

Jai grinned. "Nah, I said I'm good. How long was I out?"

"Two minutes," Ivex answered.

"Two-" Jai choked. "Aye," she mumbled to herself. "Valkyrie must have some sort of time warp capabilities, or maybe it's like dreams, and the illusions are way shorter than they seem. I could also just be throwing myself off, because I stopped time while inside a trippy environment."

"You always creep me out when you do that analysis thing," Max groaned. "If you have something to say, don't say it it the freaky whisper!"

Jai bowed. "Right. Sorry. Anyway, I think me and Ivex have had enough excitement, so I think we'd better head back to Haven."

Max smiled sadly. "I get that." She held a fist up and the two friends bumped fists. "I'll see you..." her voiced trailed off. "When did you stop wearing the ring Coli and Micheal made for you?"

Jai winced. Of course Max would notice that. "Recently."

"Why did you stop?" Tara asked, suddenly interested in the conversation. "You always loved that thing."

Jai rubbed the back of her neck. "If I'm being honest, I think I left it at home when I came to Haven. You know how much of a slob I am, my family couldn't find it even if I asked them to look for it!"

Max eyed her suspiciously. "Sure. Whatever you say, Jai."

Max watched Jai and Ivex ride off, waving from her front door. Once they were out of sight, she frowned. Was she insane? She knew that Jai had been wearing the ring when she arrived… where had it gone?

She sighed, and stuck her hands in her pockets. Her brow furrowed as she pulled a piece of paper out.

There are dangers right before you. Be careful who you trust, the paper read. Keep your head on straight. Find a way to destroy Tara's ring when you get the chance, but be warned, she'll try to fight you.

Max raised an eyebrow at the familiar handwriting. "The hell, Jai…" she muttered, folding the paper back up. She looked down the road where Jai and her teammate had gone. "What mess did you get yourself into this time, old friend?"

A/n #2: Thank you for reading! I apologize for any grammatical errors I may have missed. Until next time! /Kronos\\